Chapter 47

Had he gotten the date wrong? He wasn't the type to come visit without business either.

"What else? Give me medicine."

"...What?"

Daniel made a dumbfounded expression as if he was seeing every kind of crazy person.

"You got a Guide, didn't you? Without saying a word to me."

Ash suddenly flinched. He hesitated for a moment, then asked reluctantly with a disgusted expression.

"Do you perhaps like me?"

"What?"

Fuck, crazy bastard. He almost let a curse slip out. I'm even married. Ash would occasionally provoke Daniel's patience like this.

"That's not what I'm talking about!"

"You seemed upset that I didn't tell you beforehand. I thought you might secretly like me."

"I don't like you."

Daniel gritted his teeth and spoke each word separately.

"No. What I mean is... now that you have a Guide, you can solve it by receiving guiding from your Guide."

"That's separate from this."

"..."

"It's separate."

"...What's separate, you crazy bastard!"

Daniel couldn't contain his momentary bewilderment and grabbed whatever object was within reach on his desk to throw at Ash. Ash used his ability to move the flying object back onto Daniel's desk. Ash looked at him with a pitying gaze and said.

"Calm down a bit."

"..."

Who should be calming down right now? Someone bring anyone here and ask them! Daniel fumed with disbelief.

Rampage suppressants, or guiding pills, were emergency medicine to begin with. As medicine developed to quickly suppress Espers' rampage symptoms, the effects were certain but the side effects were just as severe.

This was because rather than filling guiding levels, they had the nature of forcibly destroying rampage cells with drugs.

In the case of very sensitive Espers, there were numerous cases of feeling pain continuously until receiving proper guiding, and even coughing up blood. So it meant it was better to receive guiding rather than even think about taking medicine.

But Daniel acknowledged that Ash had no other choice besides this.

It couldn't be helped since receiving actual guiding was less efficient and caused more extreme discomfort than the pain from guiding pills.

Usually, no one besides Ash took guiding pills. He had been forced to prescribe medicine because Ash's Guide phobia was so severe, but now that he had a dedicated Guide, there was no reason to continue taking medicine regularly.

'But this bastard who's only been paired for one day is now shamelessly saying what? Medicine and Guides are separate?'

Daniel sighed deeply, getting worked up again.

"Does the dimension wanderer know you came here?"

"No. I came secretly and need to go back quickly."

"You should have come together. Looking at you making such ridiculous demands, he'd really love to see this."

Ash didn't even pretend to hear the sarcastic remark and just said what he wanted to say.

"What's the best cell phone these days?"

"Why are you changing the subject and making a fuss?"

"I heard kids these days all have one. So I thought Nain might want one too."

"...Aren't you a kid these days too?"

"That's why I'm planning to go buy mine today as well."

"..."

"Do you think Nain would like it? Actually, I did something to make him dislike me a bit, so I want to make up for it."

Wait a minute.

"Hey, didn't you say cell phones give you headaches because of electromagnetic waves?"

"You believed that."

Daniel was momentarily speechless. ...No, this bastard who had been making every excuse for over ten years—headaches, nerve irritation—to not get himself a single cell phone, was now saying it was all lies?

...Oh my, oh my blood pressure. What should I do with that fucking bastard? Daniel grabbed the back of his neck. He gritted his teeth and warned.

"Get out quietly before your dimension wand... no, your Guide catches you. This is enough grounds for contract termination..."

What Guide in the world would leave alone an Esper who was trying to take guiding pills while having them? Daniel thought Ash's request was disrespectful behavior toward both him and Nain.

'And if the grounds for breach are something like this, Ash, you're the only one at a disadvantage...'

Daniel thought of Ash as something like a younger brother. Of course, the dimension wanderer's situation was also pitiful, but for Daniel, Ash, whom he had practically raised, was inevitably more important than Nain.

Ash was saying he'd buy a cell phone he hadn't looked at for over ten years because of Nain. He was smiling with expressions he'd never seen before, and most of all, the guy who was always lethargic seemed very energetic lately, as if his daily life had gained vitality.

He didn't know about other guys, but he never dreamed Ash would come out so unreasonably just because he got one Guide. Anyway, it meant Nain was that significant an existence to him. That's how Espers as a species were. Daniel couldn't let such a guy lose his first Guide in ten years.

"Wasn't it enough to drag a poor dimension wanderer and even make him a Guide? Why are you doing this again?"

"Will you give me medicine if I tell you?"

"Ash!"

Daniel raised his voice. He never dreamed he'd hear from Ash's mouth words that even trashy drug addicts would be tired of saying. He grabbed the nameplate on his desk. Specialist in Esper Circulatory Medicine, Daniel Lee. The nameplate engraved with his proud name was quite heavy.

"...Never mind, forget it."

But knowing that dealing with Ash would obviously end with only him breaking out in cold sweat, he couldn't bring himself to throw it and put it back down. However, Ash had already used his ability to evacuate behind Daniel in preparation for the nameplate flying.

...I knew this would happen. Only I end up exhausted. Daniel shot back with an angry face.

"Do you know people outside are calling you a drug addict?"

An incident that occurred not long after guiding pills became widespread. Daniel remembered those incidents very vividly in chronological order. This was because similar incidents had occurred one after another in the very next neighborhood when he was attending university.

At that time, numerous minors and local homeless people had sought and taken guiding pills, which were easier to obtain than drugs, and became addicted to 'Lucid,' a component of guiding pills.

Although Lucid wasn't as addictive as other drugs, it was true that it needed management as it was classified as a narcotic. The responsible parties bowed their heads in apology at press conferences and couldn't avoid punishment. This became the catalyst for making the distribution procedures for guiding pills very complicated afterward.

The incident involved an enormous number of cases and minors were involved, so it emerged as a major social problem at the time. Because of that incident, the image of guiding pills itself is still very poor.

And Daniel was a case who had taken the 'Lucid incident' as a semester project, worked on it with team members, became interested, and fell into Esper medicine.

Even though Esper and ordinary people's bodies weren't the same, you never knew. For Ash, who had been steadily taking guiding pills for ten years, it wouldn't be strange if problems arose at any time. In fact, it would be understandable if he was already addicted to Lucid.

Daniel, who had been about to get angry without warning, suddenly froze with his mouth slightly open.

"You, nosebleed..."

"Ah."

Ash reflexively raised his hand and wiped under his nose. Dark red blood smeared across the back of his hand in a wide area. Nevertheless, the nosebleed still didn't stop and continued flowing down over the smeared area. Eventually, a few drops of blood dripped onto the white tile floor of the examination room.

"It's nothing. I'm just tired."

"..."

He tried to brush it off as if it were nothing, but Daniel wasn't fooled. He had the instincts of a doctor who had been solely in charge of that personality-disordered troublemaker for ten years.

There's something. He immediately intuited that fact and his gaze sharpened.

"Other guys say Nain isn't a Guide. If you're committing fraud against the center right now, this is grounds for disciplinary action."

"What fraud."

Ash answered in a tone suggesting it was ridiculous.

"You can't even go through procedures without matching test results, so how could I commit fraud..."

"Just get to the point. Is he really a Guide?"

"He is. The guiding levels output on the machine work fine too. It's just..."

"Don't stall, speak quickly."

"His grade is nowhere near enough for me, that's the problem."

"Grade?"

What was so important about grade? As soon as he heard Ash's words, Daniel searched for Nain's name in the computer system without hesitation.

'Nain.'

...Ah, found it. Nain Elrowin. He was registered in the system. Nain's record was updated as of yesterday, classified as 'Awakener.' Within that, he was categorized under 'Guide' traits, and his grade was...

"Are you crazy? The matching rate is 8%?"

When Daniel screamed in shock, Ash chuckled.

"Don't think of it so badly. It's subtle and feels good."

"What do you mean guiding is subtle! And why did you form a pair with an F-grade?!"

Everyone who didn't stop this should be called in for questioning too. This wasn't an ordinary serious matter! How could one F-grade Guide handle Ash alone? Daniel grabbed his hair in shock.

"What's your purpose? You have other ulterior motives besides guiding, right? Are you sure this was agreed upon with the dimension wanderer? Say something!"

Even seeing Daniel raging with a face on the verge of going crazy, Ash remained calm. He was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.